A Place Where Friends and Family Can Better Understand Our Experience in Morocco

Monday, November 1, 2010

A Warm Welcome + Happy Halloween

I just wanted to give a warm welcome to Kathleen, the Peace Corps Trainee who will swear in as a volunteer later this month and take over for us in our site. She just arrived yesterday afternoon and I hope that we didn't completely bombard her with too much information all at once.

It's just that there is a lot to talk about. The truth is, we didn't get a whole lot of information from the volunteer that we replaced two years ago and that is a very frustrating situation to be in.

Ever since our site visit two years ago I vowed that the volunteer(s) replacing us would be a lot more informed than we were.

Think about it, we've been here for two years and we know what's going on here. I want my work to continue and I want the new volunteer to take what I've done and build on it. We want her to stand on our shoulders, not have to start from scratch. And to do that she needs as much information as possible, even if it is a little overwhelming at first.

This is a very busy and emotional time for us. We're almost done, we're excited about going home, we'll miss the people we've become close to, we have to tie things up with the electric company, phone company and our landlord, but we can't think of this as being the end of our work. Filling Kathleen in on our site is one of the most important things I will do as a volunteer.

If you are currently a Peace Corps volunteer, think about how you felt when you first got to site and what you would have liked the volunteer you replaced to do. If you did replace another volunteer, did you feel that you were given an accurate description of your site? Do you feel that there were a lot of really simple things that you would have been a lot better off knowing from the begining, if only the volunteer would have shared that information? It's very important that the new volunteer learns things for themselves, but why make them start from square one if they don't have to?

On an unrelated note, Happy Halloween!!! Jon and I traveled to see our good friend Lisa on Saturday and as always it was a day full of cooking, eating and EATING! Though she hasn't updated her Peace Corps blog in a long while (to the dismay of my mother) she also has a wonderful food blog (recipes included) for your food ogling pleasure! Though I know that Halloween was just yesterday, you should still check out her pumpkin marshmallow post because the flavor has a very fall feel and could be easily adapted for a Thanksgiving treat.

About Us

Emily, 28, former caricature supervisor at Cedar Point for Kaman's Art Shoppes. Graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art (2005), major in Fiber and Material Studies. Volunteer for the Small Business Development Program, Morocco.

Jon, 29, former assistant manager at Cedar Point for Kaman's Art Shoppes. Graduate of the Atlanta College of Art (2006), major in Printmaking. Volunteer for the Small Business Development Program, Morocco.